On Saturday, 25 March 2017, WWF's Earth Hour rolled around the world once again. From New York to New Zealand, Paris to Paraguay millions of people came together to shine a light on climate action, including iconic sites such as the Eiffel Tower, Taipei 101, the Empire State Building, the Acropolis and the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
187 counties and territories took part, while over 3,000 landmarks switched off their lights and millions of individuals, businesses and organisations across seven continents stepped forward to challenge climate change, by turning off non-essential lights for 60 minutes between 20:30 and 21:30 local time.
The event, which achieved its 10th anniversary this year, is organised by the conservation group WWF.
"We started Earth Hour in 2007 to show leaders that climate change was an issue people cared about," said coordinator Siddarth Das.
"For that symbolic moment to turn into the global movement it is today, is really humbling and speaks volumes about the powerful role of people in issues that affect their lives."
The 2017 results represented a total savings of 112 megawatts (MW) in peak demand, or enough electricity to power 3,404 average-size homes over a 24-hour period.
Do you know what Earth Hour is, and why is it important?
Earth Hour is a worldwide grassroots movement by WWF to unite people to take action for the planet. Engaging a massive mainstream community on a broad range of environmental issues, Earth Hour was famously started as a lights out event in Sydney, Australia in 2007. Since then it has grown to engage hundreds of millions of supporters, individuals and organisations alike, in more than 7000 cities and towns in over 75 countries and territories worldwide.
As the world's first open-source climate change campaign, Earth Hour has inspired millions worldwide to take action for our planet and help confront climate change.
What are the things we can continue doing when Earth Hour is over?
So glad you asked! Living sustainably can be something so simple yet impactful. You could:
- Support Earth Hour to empower them to continue grow the campaign to change climate change
- Support WWF climate projects and campaigns and join others committed to using the power of the crowd for real impact. Take action here: www.earthhour.org/takeaction
- Inform yourself and others on climate change and its impact on your planet.
- Switch to LED lights.
- Say NO to paper and plastic; use reusable bags as often as possible.
- Walk or cycle to places and take public transportation.
- Go digital! Only print and make use of paper when necessary and always use both sides when possible.
- Eat wisely - Choose to consume sustainably-sourced products and only purchase what is necessary to minimise food wastage.
- Shop responsibly - Select products with biodegradable packaging and items made with natural and organic ingredients.
- Ditch the disposables; utilise reusable lunch-boxes and water bottles as much as you can.
And these actions form just the very tip of the iceberg; there is no limit to a clean and sustainable lifestyle you can choose to live or the actions you can take after Earth Hour.
Everything begins with you, the individual, and it's time for us to come together and take a stand in protecting our planet!



































































































